Kai stepped into the circle.
The air changed immediately thicker, heavier, tasting of old iron and something sweeter, like decay masked by incense. The standing stones loomed taller up close, their blackened surfaces etched with runes that pulsed faint crimson in slow, deliberate rhythm, as though breathing. Frost radiated outward from each monolith in perfect radial patterns, meeting in the center where Elara's broken sword lay embedded tip-first in frozen earth. The snapped blade still carried faint traces of her frost magic pale blue wisps curling weakly from the fracture, dying slowly.
He knelt beside it.
The metal was cold even through his gloves colder than the surrounding frost, as though it had absorbed the void's touch. Blood trailed from the hilt her blood bright red against black ice, leading between two stones into deeper shadow. The scent hit him then: her rose oil, faint beneath copper and fear-sweat. It twisted something deep in his chest.
Kai closed his eyes a moment.
Memories surfaced unbidden.
Her hand on his chest during the battle warm, steadying. Her head against his shoulder by the fire, silver hair spilling like cool silk. The way she'd stepped in front of him without hesitation when the chains came.
Trust he hadn't earned.
Power he couldn't control.
He opened his eyes.
The wooden fox carving the boy's gift rested warm against his heart beneath the cloak. A small thing. Human. He touched it briefly, grounding himself.
Corruption sat at 68% now steady, but pressing. The black veins across his face and hands had faded further in the quiet hours of walking, but he felt them waiting beneath skin, patient as the eclipse itself.
He rose slowly.
The circle felt... watchful.
No wind stirred within the stones. Sound muffled his footsteps crunching softly on frost, breath visible but silent. The crimson eyes he'd glimpsed earlier were gone, but the sense of being observed remained, heavy on his back.
Kai followed the blood trail.
It led between two monoliths carved with particularly deep runes symbols that hurt to look at directly, twisting vision like heat haze. The frost here was thicker, crunching deeper under boots. Beyond the stones lay a narrow path winding downward into a shallow dell, pines crowding close on either side.
He walked carefully.
Every sense stretched.
The corruption hunger whispered constantly now not loud, but persistent. A low thrum behind his eyes, tasting the lingering void magic in the air like wine held just out of reach.
Halfway down the path, he found her cloak.
It lay discarded in frost, deep green fabric torn and stained with ichor and blood. The clasp silver, shaped like a stylized snowflake was broken. He picked it up, fabric cold and stiff. Rose oil lingered faintly, mixed with the sharp tang of fear.
Kai closed his fist around it.
The path continued downward, blood drops more frequent now small, deliberate, as though placed to guide.
Or taunt.
The dell opened into a smaller clearing dominated by a single massive stone altar flat-topped, stained dark with centuries of use. Runes circled its edge, glowing stronger crimson here. The air tasted heavier ozone and old blood, thick enough to coat the tongue.
No sign of Elara.
No sign of the figure.
Only silence.
And waiting.
Kai approached the altar slowly.
Carved into its surface fresh, deep enough to weep sap from underlying wood was a message.
*THE VESSEL ARRIVES*
*ALONE, AS COMMANDED*
*THE PRINCESS LIVES... FOR NOW*
*SIT. WAIT. LISTEN.*
*MIDNIGHT BRINGS TRUTH*
Beneath the words, a single item rested.
Elara's braid tie a delicate silver ribbon, frayed and bloodied.
Kai picked it up carefully.
The ribbon was still warm.
He sat on the frost opposite the altar, back against a stone close enough to watch, far enough to react.
Time passed slowly.
The eclipse light dimmed further as "midnight" approached sky turning deeper crimson until stars should have appeared, but none did. Frost thickened around the altar, creeping outward in deliberate patterns that matched the runes.
Corruption ticked upward 69%... 70%.
The hunger grew quieter, almost anticipatory.
Kai waited.
Memories surfaced again unbidden, but not unwelcome.
The forge. Lira's laughter. The day the sky cracked.
Elara's hand in his by the fire. Her trust. Her fear when the darkness spread.
The boy's wooden fox.
Small things.
Human things.
He held the ribbon tighter.
The runes flared suddenly bright crimson light washing over the clearing.
The air split.
A vertical tear opened above the altar shadow and crimson swirling like a wound in reality. From it stepped the figure not cloaked now, but revealed.
Tall. Impossibly tall. Robes of living shadow that moved independently. Face hidden beneath a mask of polished obsidian shaped like an eclipse featureless save for glowing crimson eyes.
In one hand, the staff with its pulsing orb.
In the other...
Elara.
Bound in chains of pure void, unconscious, head lolling. Blood traced from a cut on her temple. Frost crept across her skin in crawling veins slowly, deliberately.
The figure placed her gently on the altar.
Then spoke voice layered, ancient, intimate.
"At last, vessel. We meet properly."
The mask tilted.
"Your corruption climbs beautifully. 70% already. The void sings in your blood."
Kai rose slowly, sword raised.
The figure raised a hand.
Invisible force pinned him in place gentle, but unbreakable.
"Not yet," it said. "First... truth."
The orb flared.
Images flooded Kai's mind forced visions.
An ancient eclipse. A system binding to a previous host. Corruption overwhelming. World falling to void.
Then reset.
Another host.
Another fall.
Cycle after cycle.
Until now.
"You are the latest," the figure said. "But not the last. The system chooses vessels to contain the void. Most break. Some... embrace."
Elara stirred weakly on the altar.
The figure caressed her cheek with skeletal fingers frost spreading faster.
"She is the price," it whispered. "Surrender willingly. Let corruption complete. Become what you were meant to be."
"Save her... and rule with me."
"Refuse..."
The chains tightened.
Elara gasped in pain.
"And watch her soul feed the void first."
The orb pulsed once more brighter, hungrier.
"Midnight comes."
"Choose."
Kai's aura erupted uncontrollably black fire raging against invisible bonds.
Corruption surged 75%... 80%.
The hunger roared.
And the eclipse above began to crack.